Bank Hall

Bank Hall is not one of the most well known buildings  in the country, but it is one of the most beautiful and interesting. Its location could be passed every day without realising its existence as the lofty chimneys and the remnants of the clock tower only faintly glimpse over the tree tops. Indeed, only the lodge gives a clue to the fact that there, behind the pines and past the huge sixty metre barn is a veritable jewel.

The Hall is no longer occupied and has deteriorated to a very poor reflection of its former glory. Gone are the lime trees which flanked the drive to the front door. Gone are the stone lions that faithfully stood guard. The giant cedar with its huge spreading branches no longer casts its graceful shadow over the pleasure grounds. The tall chimneys have become overgrown with ivy, which has now claimed more than half of the building. The majestic clock tower has lost its northerly elevation which has fallen into the stairwell below, crashing through the seventeenth-century oak staircase. Dry rot has penetrated the fabric of the building with whole sections of the floor falling down and rain pouring through gaping holes in the roof.

Despite the devastation that time and neglect has brought to this great house, it still retains an air of distinction and the very nature of its ruinous state adds to the mystique that encompasses the entire site. In the solitude of early morning, shrouded in mist, the rocks call from their look out in the tower. What events have taken place in the centuries of Bank Halls' existence? What changes has it witnessed in the conditions of English rural life?

Bank Hall belongs to a period very different to ours, a time of servants and gardeners, butlers and coachmen. Such vast houses had no place after The Great War and gradually became left to dereliction and decay, owner and local authority alike unable to halt the decline. Perhaps it is due to the concealed and veiled nature of Bank Hall that so little appears to be commonly known about the details of its history. Indeed, most people from Leyland or Chorley, for example, would be at a loss to answer the question "Where is Bank Hall?" even though it is little more than five miles from either.
Bank Hall is a two-and-a-half storey brick built house with roofs of Cumbrian slate standing in formerly ornamental parkland. It has a north-facing entrance front and south-facing garden front.

The earliest identifiable phase of the present building dates from the early 17th century and is characterised by brick work in English garden wall bond. The ground consists of a four-bay hall with a parlour to the west and wing containing two rooms to the east.

Probably in the second quarter of the 17th century a four-storey stair tower was added in the re-entrant angle of the hall and wing. This retains its original open well cantilever  staircase. An addition east of the south end of the wing and incorporating a ground floor room, may be contemporary with the stair tower.

In 1832-33 the house was extensively remodelled, probably by the Kendal-based architect, George Webster, in an early example of 19th-century Jacobean style. The main entrance porch on the north side, a drawing room wing at the west end, extensive service accommodation at the east and probably the north wing, were all added in this phase. At the same time the south face or garden front was considerably altered. The angle formed by the 17th century house and the west wing was infilled in the late-19th century.

The Lilford family who inherited the Hall in 1860 never fully occupied the Hall as a residence but they maintained it until the late 19th Century when they decided to rent it out. During the second World War the Hall was used by the military (The Royal Engineers used it as a base for co-ordinating the transatlantic crossing of convoys of merchant shipping and also billeted officers there between journeys) and after it was handed back to the Estate, occupation was primarily by the Estate Managers in the East wing. Last occupied in 1971 it has since been left to the vandals and weather precipitating its decline to its present state.

More information can be found on the Bank Hall Timeline.

Restoration Project

The Grade II-listed country house was built in 1608 but since the early 1960s it has been empty and "at the mercy of vandals", according to the Bank Hall Action Group, which is hoping to save it.

Janet Edwards, the group's chairwoman, said she had been fascinated by the building since she was 10 years old and the group had run a 16-year campaign to save it.

"It is a project that no-one in their right minds would take on, but once under its spell, it is hard to walk away," she said.

In February 2014 it was announced that Bank Hall would receive £1.69m for a restoration project from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Planning consent is currently in place to turn the hall into a series of apartments while the Prospect Tower will be open for public exhibitions and tours.